History+of+Precedent

Prior to the Battle of Hastings. Moot courts in villages using local customs. No trained judges, just representatives of the King. Battle of Hastings October 1066 – the Saxons lost, the Normans won. Introduced a more centralised system, sending out Justices to collect tax and hear minor disputes. These justices went from town to town, on a ‘circuit’. Thus today, judges are still known as being on circuit when they visit country towns. The circuit judges would meet in London and discuss the cases and the various customs they had come across. They selected the best of these customs and replaced the unfair local ones with the fairest ones. These became common across England – thus common law, since it was applied across the country. The judges would take hand written notes and look back on these when cases which were similar to previous cases came up in their court. Senior judges were respected, and their decisions were followed by other judges. By the end of the 1500’s, official reports on cases were made. The official reports became the guide for judges. They would look back to see what cases had been decided previously and use those for the current case, if the principles were the same. Thus this is called common law, or case law, or precedent. If Parliament later passed a statute on the same area of law, this takes precedence over common law. Within a couple of hundred years, this developed into the stare decisis rule – stand by what is decided. It means that lower courts must follow the decisions of upper courts. ** Precedents can only be set by superior courts ** (usually on appeal) ** All lower courts are bound by the decisions of courts higher than them in the hierarchy. ** (Courts do not HAVE to follow decisions from another hierarchy such as NSW; the decisions made there might be persuasive but not binding) ** Decisions of courts at the same level in the same hierarchy are not binding. ** However they normally do follow these decisions. The High Court freely changes its mind. ** Precedent is not often set in criminal cases ** as they are decided by juries. Sentencing is NOT precedent.
 * History of Precedent **
 * Precedent **
 * Common Law **